The present invention relates to a method for weaving pile fabrics on a face-to-face weaving machine, where, in successive insertion cycles, weft yarns are inserted between binding warp yarns and pile warp yarns, so that two backing fabrics are woven one above the other, in which groups of at least four weft yarns are inserted in respective openings between repeatedly crossing binding warp yarns, and so that pile warp yarns are interlaced over a weft yarn in the upper and lower backing fabric alternately in order to form pile burls.
This invention likewise relates to a pile fabric comprising a backing fabric in which groups of weft yarns are inserted in respective openings between repeatedly crossing binding warp yarns and pile burls bent round a weft yarn.
More particularly the present invention relates to a pile fabric such as, for instance, a carpet, having a high pile density as well as to a method for manufacturing such pile fabrics.
In order to weave carpets with a high pile density, the reed setting (the number of backing warp yarns per meter of width of the fabric) should be set at a high value, for instance, at 500 to 512 per meter on the one hand and a high weft density (the number of weft yarns per meter of length of the fabric) should be obtained, for instance, 8 to 10 per centimeter on the other hand, in order to obtain a sufficiently large number of pile rows per meter (high pile row density).
A method and a fabric having the properties mentioned above are known from the Belgian patent no 1 012 005 (patent application no 9,700,993). In order to be able to weave a fabric having a higher pile row density according to the productive two rapier weaving method, a weave is applied here, the binding warp yarns being crossed off each time in a group of four wefts, and the weft yarns of these groups each time being inserted in the backing fabric at three different levels. Because of this the weft yarns of each group will end up lying more or less above one another and a higher weft density and consequently also a higher pile row density will be obtained. With this method it is possible to manufacture carpets having a high weft density of 13.5 or 27 weft yarns per meter for instance.
However, the carpets obtained according to this method have the disadvantage that their quality could be better. Especially the flexibility, the quality of the back and the pile retention of these fabrics being capable of improvement.